Mend your ways, Sharif tells govt

LAHORE: The government must end its “campaign against the judiciary”, said chief of his own faction of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists after a meeting of the party’s top leaders at the Punjab Chief Minister’s Secretariat, Sharif said “conspiracies to destabilise institutions” were detrimental to the country’s interests and that his party would use “other means” to fix things if the government did not mend its ways. However, he did not specify “other means.”

“Looking back in history, one can see that Pakistan was on track to become a financially independent state but now it is back to its reliance on foreign loans because of corruption,” he said. “Most of the money is being wasted due to corruption. Railways, Pasco, PIA and Steel Mills have become white elephants for the country,” Sharif added.

He said the PML-N had joined the government for the sake of democracy but the government did not accord respect to them. “Now our party is determined to raise its voice on all these issues,” he said.

The PML-N chief alleged that the government was not paying any attention to the plight of the poor but had instead “completely focused on corruption in various fields,” he said. He added that there were evidence against those involved in corruption and that no one was trying to bring them to justice.

Sharif also used a recent report of the Transparency International report to his favour and said that according to the perception survey, corruption had increased in Pakistan. “But the good thing is that the Punjab government is said to be the least corrupt,” he added.

Sharif also accused the PPP-led coalition government of bribing lawyers and said that it was a bid to create divisions among the legal fraternity. “I salute the bars that have refused to take grants,” he said, adding that if the National Reconciliation Ordinance was right, all the prisoners languishing in jails should be freed.
He added that the “nation will never forgive” the incumbent leadership if it does not meet the expectations of the people. Sharif said the PML-N believed in the reconciliation process and did not aim to create confrontation with anyone.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2010.